Feds eye O'Hare airport controls

The front line of Chicago's airport expansion war is shifting to Washington, D.C., as influential lawmakers move toward taking federal control of the controversial decision to build new runways at O'Hare International Airport and a third airport in Peotone.

Two months after Gov. George Ryan and Mayor Richard Daley said they planned to talk airport peace, there are strong indications that crucial determinations that have traditionally been made by locally will be made by Congress and the Bush administration.

One senator, Alaska Republican Ted Stevens, chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, is planning to introduce legislation soon to "streamline" the airport expansion process nationally, according to a spokeswoman.

Another senator, Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin, is explicitly calling for new O'Hare runways.

Meanwhile top aides to the president are hinting at possible action to come, with U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta last week calling for a "three C's" national airport expansion plan: commitment, cooperation and concrete.

"A growing number of senators are getting tired of waiting for Chicago to get its act together," says Patrick Souders, Illinois liaison/projects director for Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.

If the country suffers through another season of flight delays and cancellations this summer, "there will be significant pressure on the Congress and administration to do something" at O'Hare and other gridlock centers, adds Todd Hauptil, senior vice-president for legislative affairs at the American Assn. of Airport Executives, a Washington, D.C., trade group.

Complete coverage of this story appears in the April 2 issue of Crain's Chicago Business.